Didn't Henry do the potato trick in one of the Black books? I always wondered if that really worked.
I like Carolyn Resnick's "Waterhole Rituals." She has a handful of things she does with horses that trigger the horse to recognize your place in the herd.
All of these "steps" should be done as they are work together to engage not only the horses respect, but also curiosity and acceptance. I was really impressed how performing the same rituals on my boys helped Raz's confidence, Web's resistence, Manny's pushiness and Zephyr's fearfulness.
In her Waterhole Rituals video she goes over the rituals and then sumarizes the ones to emphasize with different types of horses. She doesn't use a roundpen because for many horses it is too confining and they feel trapped.
The one you would want to emphasize is "taking space." I elaborated on this because I had problems with Manny running people over for food.
It starts out with you with a short whip (4-5 ft) and the horse loose in an arena. Just ignore the horse until she settles in. The you start walking around casually swinging the whip in front of you (sort of like a blind person's cane). Walk with assertiveness, and focus on a point beyond the horse like a fencepost, then walk "through" the horse to the fencepost.
The first few times you have to work at not "chasing" the horse. The point is to ignore the horse, they are just in the way of something you want, but your energy may have to come up to get her to move out of your way.
The main benefit of being in a large space instead of a roundpen, is it is way easier for the horse to take off to their personal flight distance and make whatever fuss they want to make without them feeling like they have to turn and fight.
Obviously if the horse does turn on you or goes to kick, whack 'em with the whip (your bite or kick).
So when the horse moves off you can check the post and fencing, making sure the boards are nailed tightly, whatever. When she settles in her next place, start walking around again, "notice" the post on the other side of her, and walk through her again. Each time she should skeedaddle more quickly and after about 5 or 10 times she should be really paying attention to where you are.
I was really nervous that this would make the horses hard to catch, that I was just training them to run from me, but it had the exact opposite effect.
If this goes well over a few sessions of this over a week or so, then do a session where you add some small piles of hay scattered around the arena. You'll do the same thing of "taking space," but this time you'll "take" the pile of hay and check it for mold or stickers or whatever. She can just move off to the next pile, so she should do it relatively calmly. Proceed to moving her off all of the piles one by one, so you can "check" them all (it helps me to have a reason for being mean
).
I really noticed with Manny that he would draw the line in the sand at some point. He just HAD to have that one pile and would try to run me over to get it. This is a great opportunity to defend YOUR pile. If she does this, you stand on that pile and use all of your energy to keep her off. Eventually she should decide that one of the other pile is just as good and move off. I think it's really key that the horse has a choice that is positive (moves from pressure) and rewarding (her own pile of hay).
The final challenge I did with Manny was with one pile of hay or something really irresistible like a bucket of grain. I "took" the pile from him a couple of times, letting him go back when I was done, then started free lunging him. I would just keep him moving in a circle around me and keep him moving past the pile. After a couple tests of will, he would try so hard not to even look at the pile as he moved past.
Manny's gotten a lot better, especially since he is in pasture. In a group feeding situation in a basically dry pen he would get rather desperate since he's the low guy on the totem pole. I also had him boarded at a place where the BO would cluck and shake her finger at Manny and she wouldn't feed him if he layed his ears back. He started getting rather pissy and agro (wonder why?
). When I saw her doing this, I asked her what she wanted him to do in order to get fed. She wanted him to back up, turn and walk into his shelter, turn around inside and stop 3 feet inside the door so she could throw the hay in front of him. How was he supposed to figure that out? I spent one day with him training him to do this step by step and we had no further problems. He's very food motivated.
Anyway, my ace in the hole is now Zephyr. He trains all the new horses in pasture to stay away from the waitress. I walk into pasture with a wheelbarrow of hay and if any of the horses so much as takes a step toward me the wrath of Zephyr falls upon them (run full tilt, ears back, teeth bared and bites if they don't move fast enough). It usually takes one ass kicking and a follow up reminder and feeding is peaceful from then on.
I've learned a lot from Zephyr's dominance displays. He's the top dog, but he really spends little time having to reinforce his position. But when he speaks, people listen. He is always concise, fair and never petty.
Anyway, I digress. Here's Carolyn's website:
dancewithhorses.comYou can also rent videos from
www.horseflix.com - it's like netflix but all horse videos! Yay!
? I've taken her up to the round pen a couple of times, but she has NOT joined up with me! 
? I've taken her up to the round pen a couple of times, but she has NOT joined up with me! 
).
). When I saw her doing this, I asked her what she wanted him to do in order to get fed. She wanted him to back up, turn and walk into his shelter, turn around inside and stop 3 feet inside the door so she could throw the hay in front of him. How was he supposed to figure that out? I spent one day with him training him to do this step by step and we had no further problems. He's very food motivated.